Ode on a Grecian urn by john Keats

1. Presented by : Alisha Vaghasiya
Roll no : 1
Sem : 2
Submitted to : Dr. Dilip Barad sir

2. Topic : ode on a Grecian urn
(By John Keats)

3. Born : 31 October 1795
Birth place : Moorgate, England
Died : 23 February 1821(aged 25)
Cause of death : Tuberculosis
Occupation : Poet
Literary movement : Romanticism

4. Written In : 1819
Published In : January 1820
Great ode of 1819s are…..
Ode on Indolence
Ode on Nightingale
Ode on psyche

5.  Ode itself is of Greek origin…
 Ode in meaning :
ode is a short lyrical composition proper
to be set to music sung. It is a lyrical poem
characterized by sustained noble sentiments
and appropriate dignity of style.

6. The inspiration of this ode has been derived from
a marble urn belonging to lord Holland.
Urn : A container, especially a
lager round one on stem. Which
is use for decorative purpose in
garden or one which has lid and
is used for holding a dead
persons ashes that is left after a
dead body has been burned.

7. The poet sees the urn which has been standing at its
place for many years untarnished by weather etc. he
calls it a bride of quietness, a foster child of silence
and slow time and a woodland historian.
Just as a bride remains calm and quiet, maintaining
her beauty so also the urn remains undisturbed and
untarnished for a long time.
It is a foster child of silence and slow time, since it is
passing so slowly that it has not been able to destroy
the grandness of the urn.

8. ‘Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are
sweeter , therefore, ye soft pipes, play on!’
Because in heard music there is no place for a flight
of imagination, while in unheard music fancy gets a
free play. Imagination gives an exquisite sweetness
and richness which can never found in the heard
music. unheard music appeals to the soul, it has
spiritual, not the physical appeal.

9. It tells about Keats’s feeling that he is extremely
unhappy.
This expresses the difference between life and
reality The green trees will never shed their leaves
and will enjoy the perpetual summer.
The melodies will always remain young and his
song will remain ever fresh and new.
The urn is record of lovely yet fatal enchantment.

10. Imagery of sacrifice :- There he sees as scene of
sacrifice where people are going in large number,
and wonder who these people are. There is the priest
going with the people. He calls him mysterious
because he knows the secret reason of offering
sacrifice.

11. ‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty,-that is all Ye know on
earth, and all ye need to know.’
For some critics it is an utterance of new testament
Robert bridges says that, ‘ these lines are not very
distinguished.
For couch it is “An uneducated conclusion”.
T.S. Eliot “ A serious stande on a beautiful poem”

12. C. M. Borwa has explain the theory of ‘beauty is
truth’. He says, the truth is another name of
ultimate reality. Truth is not discovered by
reasoning mind but by imagination. Imagination is
true insides into the true nature of things.
Urn is symbol of Greek art, sculpture. so what is
beautiful is true and what is true is beautiful that is
all you know ad need to know.